


Hard Truths

by DemonsMuse



Series: Adventures in Blackouts and Friendship [5]
Category: The Blackout Club (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Drabble, Flashback, Gen, God I write a lot of angst, death mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:41:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22690420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DemonsMuse/pseuds/DemonsMuse
Summary: With all the struggling of her allegiance, Arabella has been incredibly oblivious to the horrors going on closer to home. She awakes in the night to her sister, Madiline, crying in the closet, though doesn't know why. She goes to comfort her, only to learn what's been keeping her sister awake at night.
Series: Adventures in Blackouts and Friendship [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1632184





	Hard Truths

**Author's Note:**

> Hey hey, welcome back. This one... I like this one. It was fun to write when I did it, and I still have this as a running part of my kid's story even now. Sometimes I remember when Ara could have gone Seed-The-Grudge, and this was definitely one of the reasons for it.

_ I felt the cool air of East Hoadly on my face, a gentle breeze rustling the hedges. Tonight’s patrol was worse than usual. Absolutely nothing happened, just a few Sleepers getting tangled in the Instrument. I had to pull them apart myself and explain to the Dispatcher that no, the Angel was not necessary and that it would not happen again. How the hell did they do that anyway?! They should be sent back to conditioning before they hurt themselves or someone else. I’m not planning on a date with the Angel anytime soon, thanks.  _

_ I sighed as I flipped on my flashlight to look around the area. It was quiet. A nice change, but why? What were those kids planning? I felt my eyes rolling. They’d get over it. My girls were with that club, but I trust them to keep everyone alive. Brats as they were, I didn’t want them to get hurt. I felt my mind wander to the girls, a bitter feeling coming up at how much they hated each other recently. This town may not be the best place for  _ **_||||||||_ ** _ but she could come around. She’ll be safe here, once this mess blows over. A smile crept to my face thinking about them. It was stupidly sentimental, but they grew so fast. I made a note to keep those presents hidden. They’d find them if I didn’t hide them, and those were supposed to be for good grades.  _

_ My thoughts were interrupted by footsteps. Definitely not a Sleeper’s; they were too close together. Too fast. Wait, shit, fast?! I turned my head---  _

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ara felt her breath hitch as she climbed in her bedroom window, pulling her mask from her face. Breathe. She needed to  _ breathe.  _ That wasn’t hers. That wasn’t  _ her _ memory. Her head and heart pounded in the silence.  _ “Who’s memory was that?!”  _ Her own voice sounded foreign in her head, as if she were someone else entirely, and yet her voice was familiar. Ara quickly reached out a hand to steady herself, lucky she kept her desk by the window. It took all her strength to stay upright. Something bad happened. Something  _ really  _ bad. She glanced around the room, looking for anything; Speak-As-One or herself, it didn’t matter. She just needed something to ground her. Something real. 

It took a moment, but her mind managed to focus on one of her toys. One of her first. A stuffed elephant with a ribbon tied around its neck. She’d run around the house with it, even brought it to school once. It never left her side. It was hers. It was her. Ara took a deep breath. Back to reality. Back to now. 

She took another curious glance around the room. Something seemed… off. Out of place. Fighting through the fog, she took note of every detail she could see. Her drawings on the wall. A few posters. The gentle hum of her laptop she forgot to turn off. Crying… Crying? The sound pulled her to a hard stop. Who was still home? Sleepers didn’t cry.  _ “Is it me?”  _ Ara rubbed at her eyes. Her hand was dry.  _ “At least that mystery’s solved…”  _ Biting her lip, she tiptoed across the carpet and around the dividers keeping her and her sister separate. Her own muted blues and princesses transitioned into bright pinks and band posters. The sobs grew slightly louder as she crept toward the closet. Ara held her breath. If she found a club kid or worse; a battered Stalker… what would she do? She felt her heart beat faster as she came closer. A few whimpers came muffled through the door. Ara took a deep breath and slid open the closet carefully. 

The smaller figure of her sister looked up at her, tears staining her cheeks and necklace clutched firmly in her hand. The sleeves of her pajamas were soaked through, and her eyes were bloodshot. Fear melted away into concern as Ara dropped to her knees. 

“M-Maddie..? What’s wrong? What happened-- A-are you hurt?” Maddie stared back for a moment before curling back into herself, another wave of tears falling.

“I-I know you don’t wanna talk to me… but please…” Ara felt her own body taking on the sorrow of the others’. “Please just talk to me...” She cautiously reached out a hand, resting it on Maddie’s knee. As soon as she did it seemed to flip a switch. Maddie lunged forward, tackling her sister to the ground in a tight embrace. Both hit the floor with a squeak and a dull thud, only making Ara’s head worse, but that was the furthest thing from her mind. This girl, her sister, the one who had disowned the entire family  _ to her face _ , was actually  _ doing _ something with her. Madiline Peters was asking for  _ help _ . Ara tried to shuffle herself up, but after failing a few times, resolved to comfort the crying girl as best she could. 

“Hey-- Hey, it’s… it’s okay. I’m here,” She looked down and laid her head across Maddie’s, “I… I don’t know what’s happening, but I’m here.” As Maddie cried, the walls loomed over the two of them, darkening the atmosphere and making it harder to breathe once again. Even so, Ara forced her breath to stay steady.  _ “If Maddie’s crying, something really bad happened. Someone has to be the strong one here, right?”  _ She took a deep breath.  _ “I guess that’s me.”  _ Ara held Maddie tighter, gently rubbing her back and humming to try and calm the other down. 

The girls lied on the ground for a solid half hour before Maddie could finally sit back up, sniffling and rubbing her eyes. They were worse than before, a bit swollen even. Hiccups still forced her body to move, but Maddie fell back onto her heels, keeping her head down. Her hair stuck to her face, leaving pink lines from the dye. Ara pressed herself up and watched the life drain from her sister’s eyes. There was something behind them. Something painful. Something secret. Ara furrowed her brow and scooted closer, knee-to-knee with the other. She opened her mouth to press further, but closed it and drooped her shoulders. She’d asked once; If Maddie wanted to say something, she would when she was ready. The room filled with a somber silence, only accompanied by the crickets. 

Maddie stopped to think as best she could. Her mind was filled with a dark haze, covering every thought completely in a dark sludge of melancholy. She couldn’t even look at her sister. Ara didn’t know. She didn’t know any of it. Pangs of jealousy seared through her heart, wishing she didn’t know either. The weight of the world settled on her shoulders no matter how many people she cried on. It wasn’t enough. The lack of knowledge, the suddenness of it all, knowing that whoever... did  _ that _ was still out there, was still running free… It hurt too much. Still, she tried. Maddie put what strength she had left into raising her head, staring her sister right in the eye. 

“It’s Dad, Ara,” Her voice gained a whimper as soon as she mentioned him, “Dad’s not on a trip. He’s  _ gone.  _ For _ real _ gone.” The sobs took over again, forcing her back down fully to the floor. “Mom found him. She told me not to tell you so you wouldn’t cry again.” Maddie tried to pull her head back up, but she didn’t have the strength. Her body worked against her, keeping her plastered to the carpet. Here it was. Here was the catalyst. Maddie curled her arms and laid there, only half listening anymore. Her mind was too cloudy to really focus at all. 

Ara’s face went sheet white. 

Gone…? He was…  _ gone _ ? The whole world drained of color before her eyes, leaving only shades of grey in place of the bright pink that used to cover the walls. Everything grew colder, curling around her in a chilling constriction only serving to make it harder to breathe. Was this the void? Was this… nothing? Ara stared in front of her, not feeling the tears overflowing from her eyes. Her body shook with a thousand thoughts all passing through at once, but nothing sticking for very long. Who did this? Why? How? Why wasn’t he protected? Did it slip? Can they not protect like they said they could? Or can they protect from voices but not people?  _ People. _ Yet another fear added itself to the pile, threatening to topple. 

He was never coming back. Never again. Never walking in from a patrol, tired and grumpy but still trying his best. Never pulling out any old books to teach something or gently smack one of them for being a smartass. Never laughing. Or smiling. Or watching old movies. Nothing. He was just gone. Without a trace. Without an answer.

“...Maddie…” Ara’s voice spiked to a whine as she completely broke down, shaking and coughing and crying as hard as she could. Neither girl could pull themselves from the floor’s newfound gravity, nor from the weight of their own limbs. It was too heavy. Too sudden. Too soon. The anguish filled the room from top to bottom, making the air into a hot sticky sludge that hurt to breathe, but still cultivated life somehow. Every breath they took only weighed them down further. It almost felt as if the floor would give way, plunging them both into the living room with wounds only their father knew how to treat.

Neither moved for hours. All the energy was taken from them as soon as the words were said. It was real now. Someone was gone. Permanently gone. Someone they cared about. Someone who loved them; taken from them. 

Forever. 

Once the tears ran out, Maddie and Ara threw all their pillows and blankets on the ground, making a nest for the two of them. Neither wanted to be alone, not after that. Maddie writhed in her attempts at sleep, tormented by the memories she couldn’t stop reliving. Ara was the same, but more still in her suffering. A void crept through her chest, trying to consume her from the inside out; the more she thought about it, the worse it got, slowly creeping from her heart to her head. As she curled around a mass of pillows, a flicker of rage pricked at her mind. 

_ “I’m gonna figure this out. I’m doing it for my dad. For all of us.” _

**_“That monster better hope we don’t find them.”_ **


End file.
